


A Case Of Murder

by Thunderfire69



Series: I’m the CyberLife sent by Android [5]
Category: Detroit: Become Human
Genre: Angst, Getting Together, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Nines makes a lot of observations about Gavin, Pre-Slash, Temporary Character Death, Tina is murdered, but he does, its not explicitly stated that Nines has a crush on Gavin, solving a case
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-06
Updated: 2019-03-06
Packaged: 2019-11-12 17:27:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18015206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thunderfire69/pseuds/Thunderfire69
Summary: Gavin gets extremely invested in a case after Tina becomes one of the victims. Nines worries about who is responsible.





	A Case Of Murder

My mechanical mind whirred as I watched Gavin walk from his desk to the kitchen; this was an everyday thing, and he’d return exactly a minute later with a coffee, sit back down at his desk and instantly burn his mouth on it, then he’d curse, place it down to let it cool only to pick it up twenty seconds later and repeat his earlier mistake. It happened like clockwork, every day, a routine I don’t think he even knew he was doing. It was endearing, apart from him accidentally burning his mouth.

 

Watching his walk, I did what I often found myself doing; analysing the way he took each step, how at a brief glance, his walk appeared confident and self-assured, but if you looked closer, it was very deliberate, each step light and placed carefully, as if he expected to step on a land mine at any moment. The way Gavin walked never seemed to change, and I’d learnt something from this; as reckless as Gavin seemed, he was smart, and actually fairly cautious. He picked fights only when he thought he could win, and could be kind of skittish and shy, which he hid under a prickly exterior. 

 

I waited patiently by his desk until, exactly a minute a later, he returned to his desk and flopped tiredly into his chair, took a sip of his coffee and cursed, placing it down to cool.

“Morning, Tin Can,” he muttered in my direction, which meant this one of the few days where he actually acknowledged my presence and possibly wouldn’t try to wage a verbal war.

 

“Good morning, Detective Reed,” I replied instantly, my programming kicking in despite having been deviant for a few months now; Connor had said it was the same for him, and that his programming had never truly left, it just sometimes became irrelevant. “There have been four more reported murders from last night. You’ve been assigned a case.”

 

Gavin picked up his coffee again, taking another sip and cursing loudly when he burnt his mouth again. He placed it down on his desk with a sigh, then looked up to meet my gaze.

“Who’s been killed this time?” he asked, sounding incredibly bored, but I didn’t fail to spot the glimmer of interest in his gaze.

 

I loaded up the report, and felt the Thirium in my joints and components run cold, as if it were freezing up. I stared at the face, at the name, that sat in front of my eyes but not yet in front of Gavin’s. Perhaps I could go convince Fowler to assign Gavin a different victim, maybe I could still shield him from this-

 

“Give me the report, Tin Can!” Gavin’s voice was loud and commanding, and rather reluctantly I projected the case file as a hologram. Almost instantly Gavin’s eyes widened, and his whole body seemed to tense.

“Tina?” His voice was quiet, barely audible, and his body seemed to shake a little, almost violently.

 

“Gavin-” I began, about to try to calm or comfort him in some way, but the detective slammed his fist down onto the table, causing his coffee to spill.

 

“The bastard killed Tina! I’ll kill them. I’ll fucking kill them!️” Gavin slammed his fist down on the table again, spilling more of his coffee.

 

️I dismissed the hologram and took a pace towards Gavin. “We’ll find them,” I promised. “We’ll find them and lock them up.”

 

“I’ll kill them,” Gavin said again, and that was when I noticed the tears forming in his eyes. “I’ll kill them.” He slammed his fist down onto the table for a third time, shortly followed by his head, and I noticed the blood beginning to form on his knuckles as they split. He raised his hand to slam it down again, and I caught it in my own to stop him; surprisingly, he didn’t try to fight, instead just slumping in his chair.

 

“They killed Tina,” Gavin muttered, and a single tear slipped down his face. “They killed her. Tina Chen. My best friend. Murdered. Dead.”

 

In that moment, I wanted more than anything to give him a hug, but I didn’t know how well he’d take it. Instead, I just clasped his now bloodied hand between my own and gave it a light squeeze.

 

“We’ll find them,” I promised again. Gavin glanced up, his tear-filled eyes meeting mine, his face hard and set with determination. 

 

“Fuck yeah we will,” he said, his tone scarily steady. “And we’ll make them pay.”

  
  


-*-*-*-*-

 

“Detective Reed, it is imperative that we return to the station. It has begun to snow and in another ten minutes you will begin to get frostbite.”

 

“Do you think I care about getting fucking frostbite?” Gavin whipped around to face me, his breath turning to mist in the cold air. “We’re so close to finding them! Just another clue,  _ something- _ ”

 

“Detective,” I said again with regret, not wanting to cost him his victory but also not wanting him to injure himself trying to achieve it. In the week since he’d found out about Tina’s death, all that had mattered to him was the case and finding the murderer. His daily routines had dwindled out until they were now nonexistent. I wondered if I’d see him walk over to the kitchen to get a coffee in the morning ever again.

 

Gavin seemed to visibly deflate as he realised I wasn’t going to give in, and he let out a sigh, scuffing up the dirt with his shoe. “Fine.” He folded his arms as we exited the area, his eyes still flicking over it as if searching for clues. For his sake, I paused for a moment to scan the area, but found nothing.

 

“There’s nothing here, Detective,” I said quietly as we continued to walk, and he stopped, his face contorting into a look of rage.

 

“There has to have been something! I just didn’t look hard enough!”

 

“Detective, I scanned the area and-”

 

“Your scan was wrong! There has to have been something here! The fucking bitch must have left a trace!”

 

I didn’t like doing what I did next, but my options were running low, so I bared my teeth at Gavin. Unlike Connor, who was my predecessor, I had fangs, which I tried to avoid drawing attention to, but in this situation it did exactly what I wanted it to do; it startled Gavin enough that he backed away from me a bit.

 

“Keep moving,” I commanded, wanting to get him moving, and he did start walking again, but the glint of fear on his face was imprinted into my mind for good. I vowed to do whatever it took to never have to see any kind of fear on his face again.

 

It didn’t take us long to return to the station, almost instantly Gavin was back at his desk, running through the case file for more clues. I watched him for a moment; his movements were frantic, and his eyes flew over the pages as he rushed to take in as much information as he could. The only clues he was actually exhausting himself were the bags forming under his eyes, and the way he slumped in his chair. Wordlessly, I made my way over to the kitchen to make him a cup of coffee.

 

-*-*-*-*-

 

It had been a couple of days since Gavin had obsessed over that one location out in the snow, and I’d later found he had the beginnings of frostbite, which he stubbornly refused to let me treat. We were now in Tina’s apartment, so there was no issue with the cold this time. My mind wasn’t really on the case, though; it was on an odd dream I’d had last night, one that was dark and filled with screams.

 

I’d had dreams like this before, and they were always just as terrifying. I’d wake from them feeling horrified, and often in some random corner of the police station rather than over in my charging station. Sometimes there was even a faint trace of red blood on my hands. I’d only just begun to wonder about why these dreams occurred on the same night that new murder cases when Gavin yelled through the apartment to me.

 

“Hey Tin Can! I found a footprint! It looks like an android’s!”

 

I followed the sound of his voice to the bathroom, where he gestured at a muddy, slightly blood stained footprint, that lay right under the window, which was smashed. It must have been how they got in, but I couldn’t help but doubt if it really was the killer. Could Tina have had an android, and it had gone deviant and tried to escape in the chaos? And possibly made it? There was no blue blood that I could see.

 

“Are you sure Tina didn’t have an android?” I asked, and Gavin threw me the most impatient look I’d seen in a long time.

 

“She hated them as much as I did, Tin Can. Only really changed her mind when she found out-” Gavin cut himself off, glancing away, then mumbled, “When she met you.”

 

I tried to ignore the fact that Gavin never used my actual name, but since becoming deviant every time it struck like a blow from a sword. Gavin had been the one to name me, after all, and through I think him calling me Nines was meant to be some kind of joke, I actually kind of liked it.

 

Instead, I focused on the footprint before me, scanning it. As the results flooded in, I jerked back with a shock. I stumbled backwards, my spine hitting the wall and my hands coming up to clutch at my hair. Gavin shot me a look full of concern.

 

“You alright there Nines?” His voice grounded me, and it dimly registered that he’d used my name for once. I lowered my hands, which were shaking slightly, back down to my sides, forcing myself not to clutch at my jacket, and averted my gaze downwards.

 

“We’ve found the murderer, Detective.” My voice was unsteady as I spoke. “They’re here in this room.”

 

“Well, where the fuck are they? I’m gonna…” Gavin trailed off as realisation hit. “That’s an android’s footprint. You’re… god, no. I can’t believe that you’d… no. It’s got to be another android of the same model.”

 

I shook my head, keeping my gaze down. “I was one of four RK900 models to not be decommissioned after the androids’ rights movement. The other three… two of them are scattered, both living far from here, and the third… well all they found of him was his arm and a chunk of his skull.”

 

“I don’t believe it…” 

 

I risked a glance up. Gavin looked absolutely stricken, and I cast my eyes down again. It would explain the dreams, the traces of red blood,  _ human  _ blood, upon my hands.

 

“You’ve got to arrest me. Before… before I kill someone else.” My hands shook violently as I raised them up to stare at them, wondering how much blood had been spilled by them. I noticed Gavin tense up in front of me, and I braced myself for a punch that didn’t arrive.

 

“Someone’s here.”

 

My head instantly whipped up to glance around, all thoughts forgotten except for one;  _ Protect Gavin.  _ I heard heavy footsteps in the hall, accompanied by heavy breathing, and the sound of blood hitting the tiles. Instantly I was standing between Gavin and the door; the detective tried to push me aside, but I wouldn’t move. If I truly had killed those people, if I had killed Tina, then I deserved to die, not Gavin.

 

A figure appeared in the doorway, and for a moment they froze, staring at me. And for a moment, I stared back. Their eyes, bright blue, the same shade as mine. Their hair, slightly messier but distinctly the same as my own. The uniform, the whirring led that was now a yellow-orange, all the same. The only real difference was their left arm; completely gone, leaving just a gaping hole where blue blood went  _ drip, drip, drip  _ onto the floor.

Another RK900. 

I wasn’t a murderer.

 

Then they charged at me, hand clawing at my chest and ripping it open, spilling thirium over the floor. Dimly I heard Gavin yell, and then the android’s hand was closing over my thirium pump. I felt it begin to buckle under the pressure, and warnings began to flash up in my vision; everything began to glitch out and blur. And then suddenly the android was ripped away from me, and I was falling backwards onto the floor, and I heard two loud, ringing gunshots.

 

“Nines!” Gavin’s voice sounded a million miles away, and a shutdown warning began to blare in my line of vision; my thirium pump was  damaged, and I only had a minute. Definitely not enough time to get me to CyberLife for a spare. Gavin’s face swam into view, fear written all over his features. A tear broke through his resolve, spilling over and down his cheek, and I reached up to brush it away. Gavin brought up his hand to place it over mine.

 

“Please don’t die,” he begged. “Please don’t die. I can’t lose another person. Please don’t die.”

 

I gave him a sad smile, and glanced at the timer in my vision.  _ SHUTDOWN IMMINENT: 20 SECONDS.  _ I managed to draw enough breath to say a single sentence.

 

“You’ll be okay, Gavin.” 

 

“Nines! Please don’t die.”

 

Darkness was beginning to edge my vision, and I only had a few seconds left. My limbs grew heavy, and my hand slipped from under Gavin’s, falling to rest uncomfortably on the floor but I didn’t have the strength to move it. My eyes closed, and I let the inky darkness take me.

  
  


-*-*-*-*-

 

My eyes flickered open, and I dimly registered that I was in a machine designed for repairing androids, at CyberLife. For a moment, I lazily gazed around me, then realisation jolted through me and I shot up; thankfully the machine had already done its work. There was a CyberLife scientist nearby, and she almost instantly spotted how distressed I looked.

 

“Nines,” she greeted calmly, her voice somewhat soothing to hear. “Welcome back. Thankfully shutdowns are easier to reverse nowadays.”

 

“I need to see Gavin.” The words tumbled from my mouth before I could stop them. I expected her to purse her lips, to tell me I required more fixing, but instead she gave me a soft smile.

 

“Your uniform is just next to the machine there. You can leave whenever you want.”

 

“Thank you,” I said as she turned away to return to her work, and I quickly got dressed, excited the building and hailed a taxi. Next thing I knew, I was arriving at the police station. Gavin’s car was outside, which meant he was there; no other cars sat in the parking lot, though, and it only just registered that it was the middle of the night.

 

Taking a deep breath, I stepped into the station. The inside was brightly lit, but only one person sat inside, a cup of coffee in his hand as he stared at his computer screen. It was such a familiar sight that I wanted to throw myself at him and give him a massive hug, but I restrained myself, taking a moment to check the date and time; I’d been gone for five days. 

 

“Fowler, if you tell me to head home one more time, I’m going to strangle you,” came Gavin’s tired voice. “I’m going to solve this case and then find a nice place to die.”

 

“I do not believe Captain Fowler is present,” I said instantly, announcing my presence. Gavin looked up, startled, and upon spotting me dropped his coffee, which spilt all over the floor.

 

“Nines! Holy fucking shit, I saw you fucking  _ die  _ and now you’re back and-” I cut off Gavin’s rambling by pulling him into a hug, which he melted into, his arms coming up to wrap painfully tight around me, but I didn’t mind. 

 

“Let’s be thankful androids shutting down isn’t as fatal as it once was,” I murmured into his hair. Gavin then drew back, and I was confused for exactly a second before his lips pressed against mine. I hadn’t expected it, but I certainly wasn’t going to complain, returning the kiss almost instantly. It was soft and almost cautious, confirming what I’d already thought about Gavin; he was a careful person. 

 

He pulled back, and I instantly pulled him in for another hug, letting my chin rest in his hair, a small smile playing across my lips. I hadn’t exactly been planning on getting almost murdered, but if this was the reward, well, I wasn’t complaining.

**Author's Note:**

> In case it’s unclear, Nines has the nightmares bc the RK900 models are connected and share like a mind link thing. Also I’m so sorry Tina.


End file.
